Matchbox: the Movie review – as pointless as a film based on a toy car could be
John Cena and Jessica Biel collect paychecks in a soulless and synthetic slab of corporate product that hints at what we can expect from the Paramount-Warner merger
After a windy road, this week it finally happened. The day that Hollywood, and many of those who are invested in it, had been dreading, the grimly inevitable disappearance of Warner Bros as it was consumed by what is now known as Paramount. The two once-classic studios will become one – Skydance, the David Ellison-owned company that has infinitely more money than common sense or base-level creativity.
The week has seen many, including the Guardian, speculate about what we may be able to expect, what kind of films the billion-dollar behemoth might now be releasing. Warners after all has created classics such as Casablanca, The Exorcist and 2001: A Space Odyssey while Paramount has been behind The Godfather, Chinatown and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Just imagine what the combined might of these two prestigious, industry-defining studios could achieve with the promise of 30-plus theatrical releases a year, huge amounts of money and considerable manpower at play.
